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LONDON, UK February 3, 2009
- NetApp (NASDAQ: NTAP) announced two significant advancements
today to deliver on its strategy to drive IT costs down and improve
performance through the use of solid-state memory for disk as well
as for controller caches. As part of its news, NetApp unveiled
V-Series support for Texas Memory Systems' RamSan-500 solid-state
disk (SSD) array and new industry-standard benchmark results for
the NetApp Performance Acceleration Module.

NetApp Supports High-Performance SSD Array with V-Series
Family
NetApp® V-Series is an open storage controller that unifies
NetApp and non-NetApp storage-including systems from EMC, IBM, HP,
HDS, and Texas Memory Systems-under a common architecture to
consolidate business-critical data and dramatically simplify
management. Now NetApp customers can leverage V-Series with the
RamSan-500 to use flash memory as persistent storage and
cost-effectively meet the needs of performance-intensive
applications. NetApp V-Series and Texas Memory Systems combine the
full benefits of the NetApp Data ONTAP® operating system with
SSD storage to improve application performance and offer advanced
features such as thin provisioning, Snapshot™ copies, and
deduplication to improve storage efficiency and management with
solid-state technology.

"Texas Memory Systems brings more than 30 years of enterprise-class
SSD technology expertise to NetApp customers," said Woody Hutsell,
executive vice president, Texas Memory Systems. "Now our customers
can deploy our SSDs with the best platform for storage efficiency,
data management, and protection from NetApp. Together, we're
providing a powerful combination of leading SSD technology with
advanced capabilities that are inherent in all NetApp systems that
our customers can use for their most critical business
applications."

NetApp Performance Acceleration Module Improves Efficiency
and Performance
The NetApp Performance Acceleration Module enables customers to
leverage solid state technology, currently DRAM, as a modular read
cache in the storage controller to improve efficiency and
performance of mainstream storage platforms and common enterprise
applications. New SPECsfs2008® benchmark results for the
FAS3140 storage system with the Performance Acceleration Module
demonstrate the following advantages for data centre
environments:

Improve efficiency and reduce costs. Customers
can deliver the same level of throughput with half as many hard
disk drives (HDDs) to lower cost by 27%, reduce rack space by 44%,
and lower electricity usage by 47-54%.

Make SATA disk drives viable as primary
storage. Customers can increase storage capacity with SATA
disk drives by 75% while using half as many drives and achieve a
similar level of performance as Fibre Channel disk drives, which
are typical for primary storage environments. Now customers can
save precious data centre real estate with higher-density
drives.

Improve response times. Customers can improve
overall response times in a Fibre Channel disk drive configuration
by 35% while reducing the number of drives by half with a single
Performance Acceleration Module.

Today's demonstrated advantages of the
Performance Acceleration Module are consistent with NetApp's
strategy to use solid-state technology in innovative ways, and
further paves the way for future similar products based on higher
density flash memory.

NetApp's Performance Acceleration Module helps customers grow cost
effectively without the need to add shelf space or power. Storage
administrators typically add hard disk drives, whether or not more
storage capacity is needed, to achieve increased throughput for
file services and similar workloads. This consumes space and power
that are in short supply in many data centres.

Alternatively, the Performance Acceleration Module fits directly
into an existing storage controller to provide customers an
innovative way to improve application response times and increase
throughput without adding disk drives. Up to five modules can be
supported to provide a single pool of cache so that customers can
scale performance depending on their application needs. The module
also consumes no rack space and 95% less power than a shelf of
Fibre Channel disk drives. Furthermore, by using the Performance
Acceleration Module with NetApp V-Series, customers can realize the
same performance, storage efficiency, and cost benefits of NetApp
storage with their existing HDD-based third-party storage.

"NetApp is fulfilling our strategy to give customers innovative
choices in deploying SSD and flash technology," said Jay Kidd,
chief marketing officer of NetApp. "Our partnership with Texas
Memory Systems combines the industry's leading SSD technology with
NetApp data management and storage efficiency technologies that
have proven to help customers significantly lower their IT
infrastructure costs. For cost-sensitive customers, our Performance
Acceleration Module gives them yet another unique way to improve
performance and efficiency and reach the full potential of their
overall storage capacity with a smaller investment."

Pricing and Availability
Customer pricing for products described in this press release is
available from NetApp sales or reseller partners. The Performance
Acceleration Module and V-Series support for Texas Memory Systems'
RamSan-500 SSD are available immediately.

Discuss this news in the NetApp Community, where you can exchange
thoughts and ideas on a variety of topics with our community
members. Collaborate with our company, engage in conversation with
NetApp leaders and employees, and participate in our passion to go
further, faster. Join now at www.netapp.com/uk/communities/.

About Texas Memory Systems
Texas Memory Systems designs and builds solid state storage systems
for accelerating essential enterprise applications. The
award-winning RamSan product line, known as The World's Fastest
Storage®, delivers fast, reliable, and economical solutions to
a broad base of enterprise and government clients worldwide.
Founded in 1978, Texas Memory Systems continues to architect and
engineer the future of solid state storage. www.texmemsys.com.

About NetApp
NetApp creates innovative storage and data management solutions
that accelerate business breakthroughs and deliver outstanding cost
efficiency. Discover our passion for helping companies around the
world go further, faster at www.netapp.com/uk.

To learn more about the history and culture of NetApp, get a copy
of How to Castrate a Bull by NetApp founder Dave Hitz at
www.howtocastrateabull.com.

NetApp, the NetApp logo, and Go further,
faster are trademarks or registered trademarks of NetApp, Inc. in
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